Page 55 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

‘Sssss! Have they ever called me that?’ said Kaa.
‘Something of that kind it was that they shouted to us
last moon, but we never noticed them. They will say
anything—even that thou hast lost all thy teeth, and wilt

not face anything bigger than a kid, because (they are
indeed shameless, these Bandar-log)—because thou art
afraid of the he-goat’s horns,’ Bagheera went on sweetly.
Now a snake, especially a wary old python like Kaa,
very seldom shows that he is angry, but Baloo and
Bagheera could see the big swallowing muscles on either
side of Kaa’s throat ripple and bulge.
‘The Bandar-log have shifted their grounds,’ he said
quietly. ‘When I came up into the sun today I heard them
whooping among the tree-tops.’
‘It—it is the Bandar-log that we follow now,’ said
Baloo, but the words stuck in his throat, for that was the
first time in his memory that one of the Jungle-People had
owned to being interested in the doings of the monkeys.
‘Beyond doubt then it is no small thing that takes two
such hunters—leaders in their own jungle I am certain—
on the trail of the Bandar-log,’ Kaa replied courteously, as
he swelled with curiosity.

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